Desperate Times
by figliedellatempesta
Summary: ... call for desperate measures. Loki semi-accidentally finishes Tony Stark off, and finds himself bored. Loki/Pepper/Tony/godknowswhoelse. Movie-based and not very canon.
1. Prologue

_A/N - This is (speculatively) movie-based - I know nothing about the comics. Please excuse the utter lack of canon-ness - there are probably a tonne of mistakes and inconsistencies with the movie/comic canon. I wasn't sure which section to put this in as it's basically a Thor/Iron Man/Avengers movie crossover, arrgh._

_I am several chapters ahead with this one, so I will be uploading at least a few more very soon if anyone is interested at all._

* * *

_Prologue_

Tony stretched his arms a little behind his back, popping out a few of the knots of tension that had built up in his muscles during the last few hours of sitting waiting for Loki to make a move. He really, really hated that goddamn jötunn.

Mr Tony Stark, aka the Iron Man, one of the much vaunted Avengers, was hanging around the lobby of a large, corporate building in downtown New York waiting for the God of Mischief to execute the next step in whatever the hell his current scheme for world domination was. He hadn't, he reflected, been given much to go on; he just knew that Loki was going to cause some sort of mayhem in roughly this area at roughly this time. This job sucked. He was starting to regret giving Nick Fury the time of day when he appeared with a stack of papers with "Avengers Initiative" written on them.

A few months ago, Tony Stark had been blissfully unaware of the existence of the Avengers. He had been blissfully unaware of the existence of gods and Asgardians and most of all Loki. In fact, not long before that, he had simply been a businessman, a highly successful weapons contractor. He had not been someone who would be expected to stop a wayward god on a rampage. He was just leaning back against the wall cursing his luck when a group of about eight workmen barged into the foyer in hard hats. The man at the head of the group walked over to him quickly and purposefully. "I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the building," he said in an authoritative tone. Tony scowled in annoyance. He was already having a terrible day and now a bunch of idiotic humans were going to get in the way. The man was a typical builder with a bit of a management complex, although there was something about him that made Tony a little uneasy.

He shrugged the feeling off. "Why?" he asked in typical uncooperative fashion.

"The place is being renovated. Didn't you see all the signs saying 'No entry. Authorised personnel only'?"

"No." It was possible he was being dense, but he did not recall this at all. The building had been closed for the evening, sure, but he wasn't aware of any signs.

The man gave a theatrical sigh. "Well you don't look like authorised personnel to me," he drawled. "So I suggest you clear out before you get hurt."

Tony grimaced and made to walk towards the exit, before deciding he felt like making himself awkward. "How about you're the ones to clear out? I have important business here. Who the hell does renovations at this time in the evening anyway?"

"Contractor's orders," the man replied smugly, with more than a hint of a glint in his eye. "We've already laid dynamite, for your information, so it really is your choice whether to stay or to leave, although I suggest it might be the latter."

Wait a minute. "Dynamite?" He looked around and realised the other men were checking various points in the walls, one of them examining what looked like the controls to a very high-tech and high-powered explosive setup.

The man in front of him simply smirked.

"Wait a minute. This is ridiculous; I haven't heard anything about this place being demolished, and the area hasn't been cordoned off. What the hell are you people up to?"

The smirk on the other man's face was getting ridiculous. Tony was having a hard time not punching his hand through it. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about the rest of the area either. While you've been relaxing here attending to 'important business', we've rigged up the whole place."

"What… the…?" The penny was starting to drop. He lunged for the man, but was nowhere near quick enough, and didn't have the case near enough to get into his Iron Man suit. His essentially human reflexes were nothing like quick enough to catch the other man who had seamlessly morphed into a sleek, dark haired man in a smart trench coat with a sarcastic smile and glinting green eyes.

"Loki!" he yelled, a little less intelligently than he would have liked.

The God of Mischief gave him a patronising clap. "Good detective work, as usual, Mr Stark," he said, in the manner of a CEO congratulating a business associate. "Without your hard work, none of this would have been possible."

"You can't blow up this whole area," Tony protested, "there are residential flats here, as well as half of the most important business buildings in New York."

Loki pretended to look downcast for a moment. "Ah well, when you put it like that… I suppose I'd better remove all the dynamite that I've spent the last few hours preparing… Or, conversely…"

Tony lunged, focussing all his well-honed reflexes on catching the god by surprise. To his own surprise, and Loki's, he managed to grab him by the throat, pinning him to the wall. By this point the others had cleared out of the room and were vacating the area. The timer on the wall a few feet away was ticking ominously. A look of panic appeared in Loki's eyes. Tony's mind raced; how was he going to be able to restrain Loki and get the hell out of there all within about 20 seconds?

His question was answered for him when the apparition in front of him disappeared in a puff of smoke and the real Loki's laugh echoed throughout the room just before the explosives detonated.

"Shit," Tony muttered under his breath as he realised the miscreant Asgardian had well and truly tricked him.


	2. Chapter 1

_Next chapter is written, one after that is in progress. Enjoy. _

* * *

_Chapter One_

Pepper Potts was sitting at her desk in Stark's mansion, tapping away at the keyboard in front of her in her usual official manner, although her occasional nervous looks at the clock next to her, and her unusually frequent consultations of her mobile phone betrayed the fact she was a little concerned. She knew Tony had gone off on another of Fury's missions; nothing that had sounded especially difficult or dangerous, just recon really. Nonetheless, she had been expecting him back an hour ago, and something about his complete radio silence was making her feel agitated. There was no particular reason for her to worry about him – he knew how to look after himself, after all, and he'd been in more than his fair share of dangerous situations – but there was still a small knot of anxiety in the bottom of her stomach as she continued to work.

It was getting late, anyhow. There was no way she could continue to sit at her desk and work all night. If Tony wasn't going to come home it was most likely because he had found a nice blonde to go home with, rather than because he was lying in a ditch somewhere, so there was really no reason for her to do anything other than call it a night and work out where her employer was in the morning.

Sighing to herself and pushing her probably unfounded worries from her mind, Pepper shut down her PC and got up from her desk, deciding to go home and go to sleep.

The next morning, when she came in to work at the usual time, she punched in the code and entered Tony's workshop, half expecting him to be in there tinkering with one of his suits, or else lying fully clothed (or otherwise) on one of the sofas, asleep with his mouth open. She didn't find either of these things, however. In fact, the whole place was exactly as it had been when she left work the previous night. She supposed this wasn't altogether unexpected. Years of working for Tony had taught her not to expect either consistency or courtesy from him, and turning up for work to find him in various states of inebriation or undress, not to mention finding a different woman each week, was all part of the job. Turning up to find the whole place empty and eerily silent was unusual, admittedly, but it wasn't unheard of for him to go back somewhere with a woman, or to decide to stay out with a new drinking companion.

With a sad smile to herself, Pepper settled down at her desk again, absent-mindedly flicking on the wall-mounted TV screen as she did so.

She booted up her computer, checked voicemails and messages and inspected the room as normal. She was just settling down to some important data files relating to Stark Industries when a line from the news report babbling on in the background caught her attention.

"Several buildings in the downtown area of the city… Police suspect terrorist activity…"

Pepper looked up from the desk at the screen. An area of the city she recognised was shown in the picture, although a terrifyingly huge area had been razed to the ground by some kind of explosion. The sinking sensation in her stomach told her without having to listen to any more of the report that this had been the place Tony had gone to the previous night.

She knocked over a coffee cup as she got up, clutching for her mobile phone in a kind of panic. She didn't know who to call first, but Tony's number seemed to dial itself, and she tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the dial tone. She listened to the phone ring seven times before it went through to Tony's answerphone. She hung up and called again. And again. It was pretty obvious no one was going to pick up. Trying to calm herself down she called Caulson. It was the best she could come up with in the spur of the moment.

"Caulson speaking."

"It's Pepper."

"Can I help you?"

"Have you seen the news reports?"

"Which ones, specifically?"

"The explosion."

There is a moment's silence at the other end of the phone. "Caulson?"

The SHIELD agent clears his throat. "Ah yes. That."

"Yes, that. What do you know about it? I think Tony was there, I think he might have been hurt, or… or…"

Another short pause. "Well, I'm afraid it looks like he might have been caught in the explosion, yes."

Pepper's heart leapt in her chest, seeming to jump into her throat at the very same moment as her palms began to sweat and her mouth dried up. "What happened?"

"We're not quite sure, but we haven't been able to locate him."

"But you're still looking for him, right? Right?"

"Miss Potts, I'm afraid there is really nothing left of any of those buildings. There is nowhere left to search. SHIELD are treating him as missing presumed dead. We are investigating the incident."

"Investigating the incident?" Pepper repeated, her voice high and hysterical. "What does that mean? You can't just give up on him like that."

"Miss Potts, I understand that you're upset…"

"Upset! Understand! How can you understand…?" she babbled a little hysterically. She stopped for a moment, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to return herself to her usual calm persona. "And do you know what happened? Do you know who did this?"

"We have our suspicions, Miss Potts. I don't know if I should be sharing this with you; it's classified homeland security material, but we believe we are dealing with Loki."

"Loki…?" Pepper asked, not sure if she was taking in what Caulson was saying. "As in, the Norse god…?"

"Yes. One and the same. We have been monitoring his activity for a while, and that of another Asgardian god who has been spotted in the US. I'm sorry, Miss Potts. If Stark has been killed, however, this is a serious problem for all of us. Without him, I really don't see how we are going to be able to stop Loki. This explosion is just the start of it, there's no telling what other havoc he may be planning to wreak."

Dazed, Pepper put down the phone without saying goodbye and sank down into her chair.


	3. Chapter 2

_why am I still posting this when no one is reading it_

* * *

_Chapter Two_

A certain dark-featured, calculating yet oddly charismatic face was beginning to become a regular feature on news reports these days, Pepper was starting to notice. A pointed, elfin face with green eyes and dark hair slicked back into the kind of comic-book supervillain style that only someone who wasn't from Earth could have possibly thought was cool. Loki wasn't keeping his exploits particularly quiet, although she supposed there wasn't any particular reason for him to do so.

She was still refusing to accept Tony's death, still keeping his things the same way they always had been, ready for him to come home. She was still running Stark Industries the same way it always had been, whilst collaborating with the remaining, bedraggled remnants of the Avengers to try and minimise the damage done by the destructively playful god. They weren't doing well. In all honesty, anyone with any sense had already fled New York and ideally the whole state. Pepper had more than her fair share of sense, but she wasn't about to abandon Tony's fight.

Yes, there were a hundred and one reasons for Loki to celebrate. This, then, did not explain why the cunning mischief-maker was sitting in the office he had set up for himself in the head office of the Stock Exchange burning holes in his fancy hardwood desk and muttering dejectedly to himself. To a casual observer, if they didn't know any better, he would have looked_ bored_.

"It's just all too easy," he grumbled to one of his minions who was standing looking awkward and nervous by one of the large windows that looked out over the smoking remains of the city. "I would have thought killing that smug oversized robot man would have cheered me up, but what challenge is there left for me now?"

The other man looked at the floor for a moment before looking up at his master. When Loki was in this kind of existential mood it was a _very _bad idea to be around him. "I… I don't know sir," he replied, not especially wanting to incite the wrath of a rather irritable demi-god.

Loki frowned, running through a couple of irritated and bored expressions before he remembered that the minion was there. He shot a bolt of lightning which launched the man backwards out of the glass, which relieved his boredom for all of a second. He gave a slightly manic laugh, before returning to his morose position at his desk.

Conquering Earth had seemed like such a good idea. He had needed a project, after his attempt at taking over Asgard had backfired rather spectacularly, leaving him spiralling down into space, scorned and shunned by his family and homeland. One of the less aggressively armed of the nine realms had seemed like a good prospect for him to conquer and rule. He did want somewhere of his own to rule, and the idea of pitiful little humans running about doing his bidding had been rather appealing. However, he hadn't really counted on the overall lack of resistance. The only person who had really been able to challenge him had been that rather mouthy bearded man. Stark had somewhat lacked the intelligence and cunning required to be a true protagonist to Loki's antagonist, a real arch enemy, but he had certainly foiled a fair amount of his plans and caused him quite a few reasonably impressive injuries. In fact, he really hadn't expected his plan to work. He hadn't expected to be able to catch the Iron Man out with a relatively simple trick. With Stark at the helm, the Avengers had been a real challenge, a real opponent; now they were just a bedraggled band of morons who were really more like annoying gnats to Loki than any sort of opposition. And his brother still hadn't even seemed to notice that Loki was up to anything. Or maybe he had and he just didn't care; that was as insulting and infuriating to Loki as any of the rest of it. As things were, he was starting to consider leaving Earth and forgetting the whole thing. That or he needed to think of a way to make things interesting again, pronto.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Meanwhile, the fallout from Stark's death was making itself known in a multitude of ways. The remaining Avengers were more desperately needed than ever: the highly-trained martial artist and assassin Black Widow, the deadly sharpshooter known to most as Hawkeye, the enhanced ex-soldier generally referred to under the rather corny moniker Captain America, Loki's demi-god brother Thor, and the rather unassuming Bruce Banner, who was only remarkable in his other form – the Hulk. Between them, they could handle the worst of Loki's pillage-and-burning acolytes. However, with the exception of Thor, they all had rather a key weakness over Loki – they were all human, and all mortal. In a straight fight, none other than Thor could really stand up to Loki, and as it was, they were having enough trouble keeping the few remaining human inhabitants of the state safe – defeating or even challenging Loki himself was a million miles from their thoughts. Just hanging on was enough for now.

Tony Stark had been the only man who could go toe to toe with Loki without winding up dead, and who had managed to wound the God of Mischief on multiple occasions. Except now he was gone. Stark had had the advantage of his technological prowess on his side, as well as his training-honed body; but it was really his personality that had given him the edge; his ability to anticipate Loki's next move, to – if it had to be said – put himself into the mindset of a crazed, power hungry maniac. Loki had come close to respecting him. Stark's own sarcastic and self-confident wit was almost a match for Loki's, and he had been the one person on Earth who had not really feared him. Still, perhaps that was what had lost him his life in the end. An overconfidence in his own abilities.

Nonetheless, the Avengers were not the only ones attempting to take up Stark's Iron Man mantle. Tony's erstwhile friend and co-combatant, James Rhodes had taken one of his old friend's Iron Man suits and was using it to the best of his ability to help in any way he could.

This aroused a little of Loki's attention and interest. A close friend of Tony Stark; perhaps his only real friend aside from his assistant. A righteous and morally driven man, who had taken up Stark's technology to fight evil, represent justice and all that other self-righteous crap. Yes, Loki was beginning to think he might have some use for him.


	4. Chapter 3

Well, for the two people who were kind enough to review, here is chapter 3.

* * *

_Chapter Three_

There were a number of things that Loki could do, as an Asgardian god, not to mention a jötunn, which no mortal, no matter how skilled, trained and enhanced, was capable of. Other than his super-human fighting abilities – his reflexes, his speed, his strength and his skill – he also had magic to fall back on. The ability to create illusions and to shift his own shape into whichever form pleased him was a particularly useful aspect of this. However, in reality, his magical abilities extended considerably beyond these party tricks. There were a number of ways in which he could have used his magic to further enslave the human race, and most probably to destroy the remaining opposition to his reign. How strange, then, that he was using it to a rather different end.

"Tell me again why you're actively trying to make your enemies stronger, rather than destroying them?" Stanisoff asked. Stanisoff was perhaps the only one of Loki's immediate adjutants who dared to question or second-guess their leader. He was a Russian ex-soldier, who had fought in countless wars, and who had been trained in a range of deadly techniques by the Soviets. He was a large-ish man with well-honed muscles and ash-blonde hair which he wore in a long ponytail. Loki liked him because he could kill a man with one move, but he mainly liked him for his dry rationality, and his complete lack of fear and respect for Loki. As such, the god had taken to allowing Stanisoff to act as more or less a second in command, at least in matters which didn't require too much finesse.

It did, however, beg the question as to why Loki – who hated to be questioned – had allowed the most sceptical and cynical of his followers in on this particular plan. He narrowed his eyes and sighed with exasperation. "It's quite simple," he said, in a matter of fact tone. "I give this man godly powers. In exchange, I get to have a decent challenge again." He poked idly at a photograph of Rhodes on the table, "he seems like a rather upstanding, moralising sort," he said with a sneer in his voice, "should make a perfect super-hero. What with Tony Stark's technology and my powers, he ought to offer some sort of resistance."

Stanisoff merely gave a small "hmph" in response. His pinched features did not give away much of what he was thinking, although it was fairly obvious that he did not follow the logic in Loki's argument. Nonetheless, he was a man who enjoyed chaos almost as much as the God of Mischief himself did, and so he certainly wasn't going to stand in the way of Loki's plan.

Stanisoff didn't involve himself much in the actual technicalities. The way he saw it, he'd leave the magic to the god, and just enjoy the aftermath.

Rhodes, on the other hand, was – one could say blissfully – unaware of the powerful spell that was being done in his honour. He was, in fact, completely ignorant of it until he awoke the next day to find himself considerably larger and more muscular. He had been working out and training very hard lately, but that didn't quite explain the fact that he was now able to lift cars. And trucks. And that was without the Iron Man suit. He also began quickly to discover that he could fire lasers from his eyes and telekinetically move and explode all manner of objects. He could by no means account for any of these new and unexpected developments, but given the current situation he wasn't about to complain about or question them.

Meanwhile, however, Loki was paying remarkably little attention to his new creation – he figured that could wait for another time. Rhodes would surely need a little time to settle in to his new superhuman physique and to accustom himself to his newly-acquired godly powers. For the time being, Loki had other fish to fry.

He was trying out a new form today, one with a slightly different purpose than usual. Usually, his shape-shifting was utilised to hide him from enemies, distract opponents in battle or to cause various kinds of mayhem. It wasn't usually used as a method to seduce women.

He had deliberated a little as to what would be the best human form to take on in order to try and lull Miss Potts into a false sense of security. In fact, he didn't have much of an idea about what humans generally found attractive, or about what was a normal appearance to take on in order to blend in with his mortal surroundings. For once, he simply wished to look normal, inconspicuous. He merely wished to take a few hours away from being the god of all destruction and just take some time to relax and experience this world in a less high-pressured manner. He settled for a well-toned physique (well, if he did have a choice…), with stylishly dishevelled hair and light stubble. The only giveaway was the green eyes, but overall he looked very satisfactory; ordinary but good-looking. No complaints.

All he had to do was create a slightly artificial set of circumstances…

A small army would do the trick.

Pepper cursed under her breath as she ran barefoot down the rubble-strewn street. She should probably have known better than to go out for a walk at a time like this, but ever since Tony's disappearance she hadn't quite been thinking straight. A walk was what she needed to clear her head and to help her relax enough to be able to sleep without thinking about the horrifying turn that events had taken ever since that damned Loki appeared on the scene about a month ago.

She should probably have been expecting armed soldiers to start firing on her without notice. Now she had had to take off her expensive high-heeled shoes and run down the street shredding her new tights. She wasn't one for cursing, but this situation almost demanded it. All according to Loki's plan though, Pepper wasn't going to get away too easily. She might have been able to avoid the soldiers if it wasn't for the fact that they were all expressly hunting for _her. _Not that she knew that, of course. As she crouched, sobbing, in the doorway of an abandoned building, she couldn't help desperately wishing that Tony was still around. Shit like this just didn't go down with him there.

Perhaps that was why when a man appeared seemingly out of nowhere and sheltered her from the onslaught, pulling her to safety, she thought wildly for a moment that it _was _Tony. She gasped, before realising that it was just wishful thinking. Nonetheless, the man did resemble her employer: dark hair, broad shoulders, casually sexy stubble… One could almost have thought that it was an intentional ploy on Loki's part.

She straightened herself up, brushing dust from her clothes and flattening her dishevelled hair with her fingers.

"Are you hurt?" the man enquired.

"No, I'm alright," she replied. "Thank you, though…"

The man gave a small half-smile that again reminded her of Tony. Her stomach lurched uncomfortably. "Who are you, anyway?" she asked.

"My name's Jake. And you are?"

"Pepper. My name's Pepper." She gave a small giggle. "Well, that's not my real name, but…"

"It suits you."

"Thanks."

There was a bit of an awkward moment. Pepper really didn't know why she wasn't just walking away at this point. Sure, this man had saved her life, but he was still a stranger and in times like these she knew better than anyone to trust no one. His chivalry, good looks and charming manner caught her off guard, however. It had been a long time since anyone had been interested in her or talked to her as if she were a woman rather than an automaton.

"This may seem a bit forward, but I'm sure you could use a drink after all this. There's a bar nearby that's still open – it's nothing special, but the wine is decent."

"I don't know…" Surely Pepper knew better than to accept invitations from strange men. Except what did it really matter now that everything had gone to hell and Tony was gone? "Yeah, what the hell, one drink can't hurt."


End file.
